LOMBOK HOLIDAY

Lombok Island

Lombok island offers great holiday interests such as the remnants of Hindu kingdom on the west of the island especially around the city of Mataram, the traditional life of the original population of Lombok, the Sasak, and the beautiful small islands on the west coast of Lombok those are Gili Air, Gili Meno, and Gili Trawangan. All these small islands have been inhabited by local people since decades ago with the main subsystem of fishing on the coast of west Lombok. The beauty of Gilis' beaches has been well known in the world, which is the best for snorkeling, scuba diving, and or just relaxing on the island far from the hassle of business life.

Around Mataram city itself are also many interesting places such as the Mayura water palace, the place of the king in 17th century to facilitate the women to take bath, and the temples left by the kingdom of Karangasem. Mount Rinjani is one of the highest mountain in Indonesia with beautiful crater very high on its peak, where people usually trek up to the top during certain ceremony by the Hindu or the Moslem.

Lombok is one of Indonesian island very interesting for culture and nature tour destination or just leisure program relaxing on the beach of Kuta or Senggigi. Various tour programs are offered to the travelers for example Mataram city tour, Sasak Country side tour, Lombok round trip tour, and many others. To find some samples of itineraries please see top left side of this page under the title of Tour Program.

Nothing was known about Lombok before 17th century. The Sasak the original population of Lombok seemed not to active in developing their country. The record about Lombok was started in 1677 AD when kingdom of Goa, Makassar, South Sulawesi tried to overrun Lombok. In that struggle of Sasak Chiefs, Bali strengthened his control in Lombok and in 1750 the whole island was under control of Karangasem kingdom, one of the small kingdom in East coast of Bali. By the end of 18th century one of Sasak chief invited Dutch to rule their land in return to the service that the Dutch must spell out Karangasem kingdom from Lombok.

The Dutch was interested with the offer of the Sasak chief to drive out Bali kingdom with helf of Makassar, but this first attack was defeated by Karangasem kingdom in Lombok and reported that the army head of Dutch was killed. The second army of Dutch prepared from Surabaya was able to subdue the kingdom after bombarded Ampenan the center of kingdom in Lombok, and after the marching of prince and all the army and families to face the guns of Dutch army until the last drop of blood. This war was known as Puputan Lombok as the end of Karangasem kingdom in Lombok.

Lombok was under the Dutch colony and was welcome like god as their liberator from Karangasem kingdom, and as promised by the Sasak Chiefs, the Dutch now control the island. The control of Dutch become a nightmare for the Sasaks since the heavy taxes was imposed without exception. The rice was all collected and brought to the Dutch headquarters. This was continuing for years until what was everyone by no means did not want, yet it happened -- the great famine of 1938 on. With the rule of Balinese in Lombok some cultural aspects of Bali were applied such as water irrigation system, social organization, and religion. The co-operation between the Sasak and Bali was going well inter-marriage was common. The Sasak who make-up 90% of the total population of Lombok are all Moslem, while Balinese who mostly live on West Lombok and in the city of Mataram, Ampenan, and Cakaranegara were remain Hindu.

During the reign of Karangasem kingdom was developping a great humanity spirit among Moslem called Waktu Telu that is Islam adjusted to the spirit of original Indonesian showing tolerance and intelectuality. Yet among younger generation this spirit might fading shadowed by politic or personal interest of certain people, if generation do not expand their knowlege beyond their border will be disaster for Lombok.

POPULAR TOURS

Among various tour packages and tour options in Bali there are some tours which can be said always on the publications and interest a large part of travellers to Bali. Kintamani mountain tour sits at the first number as the most popular sightseeing tour, second is Taman Ayun and Tanah Lot tour, third is Uluwatu temple tour.